What is Misinformation?
Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally or intentionally. It can refer to any type of information, including news articles, social media posts, videos, images, and more.
- Misinformation can be created and spread by individuals, organizations, or even automated systems like bots.
Misinformation can result in:
- Decreased trust in institutions and authorities.
- The spread of false beliefs and conspiracy theories;
- Damage to reputation and relationships.
- Influences on political outcomes.
"It is important to fact-check information and seek out reliable sources"
What is Disinformation?
Disinformation, defined as false or misleading information that spreads intentionally meaning to deceive people, is a way for malicious actors to further their motives (INFO 350 Lecture, 2/14/2023). Common motives may include the following (Wardle, 2021):
- to make money;
- to have political influence, either foreign or domestic;
- or to cause trouble for the sake of it.
In a way you might consider disinformation as one of the root causes for misinformation. Disinformation comes from the intent to manipulate those who receive this information and so that means that it is important to consider that both of these concepts are intertwined in our understanding of them.
What Are The Similarities Between MaD?
They both refer to wrong or not factual information. They are terms often used to explain information that reaches a wide audience and gains a lot of attention.
What Are The Differences Between MaD?
Misinformation and disinformation differ significantly in terms of intent. Misinformation is spread unintentionally, whereas disinformation is spread deliberately to deceive or manipulate the public. In addition, misinformation is typically propagated by individuals, whereas disinformation is frequently a part of a larger campaign. Another crucial distinction between the two is their effect. Misinformation can be harmful, but it is often less targeted and has less of an impact than disinformation. Disinformation campaigns can be used to manipulate significant events, such as the outcome of elections.
Overall
These misinformations and disinformations can occur due to human error, biases from the engineers, and general stereotypes and harmful language that can be found online. Though it would be nearly impossible to create a model fully free of bias, it is important that AI models keep updating themselves to eliminate these hurtful ideas so that we can move toward more equality online.
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